


July 1969

by AngryTrashBaby



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Family Drama, Family Gatherings, alphard black is a good uncle, bellatrix is a sadistic psychopath and y'all would do best to remember it lol, family gatherings are weird when you're all related through blood AND marriage, sirius black is my favorite little shit, tagging as andromeda/ted even though he's not in it, the SLIGHTEST mention of animal and child abuse if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 05:59:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15308973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngryTrashBaby/pseuds/AngryTrashBaby
Summary: At least once during the summer, the more ‘elite’ families of the Sacred Twenty-Eight would gather for a day or so.Andromeda Black absolutely detested it.





	July 1969

**Author's Note:**

> casual reminder that I'm obsessed with the Black family and that Andromeda Black Tonks deserves all of the happiness.

The sitting room was filled with elegantly dressed witches and wizards scattered in small groups, speaking in hushed tones. Andromeda Black sat in the corner of the room closest to the windows overlooking the grounds of the Lestrange Family’s estate.

At least once during the summer, the more ‘elite’ families of the Sacred Twenty-Eight would gather for a day or so. Andromeda had always felt like she was imposing on a war council, planning against ‘the impurities’ inflicted on the wizarding race. She absolutely detested it.

Looking around the room, she caught one of the Goyle brothers attempting to catch her eye again and returned her gaze to the book in her hands. She’d already told her mother that she’d sooner bite off her tongue than marry him, but that didn’t seem to perturb him from looking her over like livestock.

She made a point to slouch her shoulders as she looked away, because she could just hear Druella’s clipped tone: ‘Boys will not fancy a woman who slouches Andromeda- posture like Narcissa’s is what will land you the perfect husband.’

Her eyebrow quirked. Someone like Lucius Malfoy may be her mother’s idea of the perfect husband, but he was certainly not hers. As if on cue, she heard Lucius explaining how Malfoy Manor would be passed down to himself and Narcissa after they’d married in a few years.

She tried to gather herself enough to return her attention to her book…. well, to Ted’s book. Barely concealing the smile that came over her face at the thought of him, she opened to the page she’d marked. He’d lent her some ‘essential’ muggle literature to read over summer break- each book had been filled with little notes scattered throughout the margins. She had brought his old copy of Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ with her, which she had been pouring over during the quiet moments she got to herself.

She’d performed a simple concealment charm to make the book look like _Witch Hunts During the Crusades_. Andromeda didn’t need to be at the top of her class to know what being caught with muggle literature amidst her family would mean. She had already overheard Bellatrix and Narcissa on several occasions talking about ‘that Tonks boy’. She really didn’t feel like explaining why she had a book written by a muggle woman...

But, maybe to Alphard. She could easily share this well worn book with him; he would pour over every word, and they would have a great discussion about the themes of the book over a game of chess. But he wasn’t in the room. Neither was Sirius, who despite being eleven, was her only cousin who read as much as her… and just about her only cousin she any interest in speaking to.

She caught the sound of her name and cautiously made to see where it had come from. She looked up to see Narcissa whispering to Goyle over Lucius’s shoulder, and couldn’t help but grimace at the look they were all giving her.

Time to get up.

Snapping the book shut, Andromeda stood and straightened the front of her navy dress. It was one of Narcissa’s who, despite being younger, was more or less the same height as she was. The bodice was significantly tighter than she preferred, but her mother had insisted- because _‘nothing impresses a man more than a small waist’._

The Lestrange’s home was dark. There were windows everywhere, but the furnishings were darker than those in Grimmauld Place… which she hated equally. At least this house had more rooms to hide from family in. Her eyes caught on a door that led off to the library which, seeing as the Goyles weren’t the most literate family, provided an escape from any further scrutiny for the time being.

She pushed the door open and stepped inside, but found herself stilled at the sound of hushed voices lost in the stacks.

“- and I already told you it’s not going to happen. I will have it for you by the coming week’s end, but two days-“

“Alphard-“ Ah- so this is where he’d gone. 

She didn’t have a full understanding of what exactly her uncle did, but she knew enough to know it was against most wizarding laws, and that he’d made a lot of money doing it. Most of what she knew was from fragments of overheard conversation between the oldest members of the Black family, but she’d never been bothered enough to dig further.

“-I am telling you that I _need_ it within two days.” That was when she recognized the other voice as her mother’s oldest brother. She’d like to think she wasn’t going to eavesdrop- but she’d already pressed her ear to the tattered leather bound spines next to her face. 

“And I am telling you _again_ , Rosier, medieval wizarding manuscripts don’t fall from the sky.” She secretly loved hearing Alphard raise his voice, mostly because she envied his ability to do so. “I’m in the process of acquiring something much harder to come by and for a significantly better sum than your manuscript. That matter should be resolved in three days time at which point I will-“

“I’ll give you another two thousand galleons on top of that.” There was absolute silencen then, and she could tell her father’s brother was assessing her mother’s brother. She could practically hear Alphard doing the mental calculations.

“How about-” his voice broke the silence, low and measured, “you give me another, say,  seventeen-hundred galleons, and the truth about what you’re actually doing with, what I believe were your exact words, a _sentimental scrap of parchment_.”

This silence felt significantly longer than the previous pause had been. Probably due to the threat that laid barely concealed in Alphard’s response.

“Very well,” there was a defeated sight, “it’s-“

“Not now, you idiot. The truth isn’t worth a damn thing if you tell it to everyone.” There was a pause, “Besides, I had asked Andromeda to meet me here, so-”

She shot up and immediately noticed the blurred outline of two men reflected in the suit of armor to her left, he must have seen her come in. Mentally cursing herself, she took the hint, and loudly closed the door behind her pretending she’d just entered.

“Uncle?” She corrected herself, “Uncle Alphard?” 

She took three long strides forward and peeked out around the shelf she’d been standing next to. The two tall men stood close together after speaking in hushed tones. Alphard beamed at her, while Rosier grimaced.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, this sudden urgency means I need to send an owl out immediately. Sorry to lead you out as you’ve just entered my dear,” this was directed at Andromeda. “-but I’d like to continue our conversation from earlier, if you’d be willing to accompany me outside.”

He stepped forward and put his hand on her shoulder gently, turning her so they were headed out the door she had just entered.

“- _don’t forget,_ Black.”

Alphard turned back to Rosier, fixing the man with a dangerous look. “I never do, _Rosier_. I expect an owl from you with the rest of payment within twelve hours.”

Alphard led both himself and Andromeda out of the library, and she made sure to keep up with his quick pace as they crossed the sitting room she’d just escaped from. She caught Walburga and Druella eyeing them, while Regulus peaked out from behind his mother. She paid them no mind, and instead strode quickly to the door Alphard had just slipped out of.

She stepped outside onto a small stone balcony to find that Alphard had already taken out a small scrap of paper. He was quickly scrawling a note with one hand, as he took a long drag of a cigarette he had just _incendioed_ with the other. It didn’t escape her notice he was using a pen, but she supposed quills were inconvenient if you were trying to draw as little attention to yourself as possible. 

“How much did you hear?” He didn’t even bother turning to look at her, and she grinned. There wasn’t a hint of anger to his voice, just an amused curiosity.

“Well,” She leant against the stone railing and smiled at him while clutching her book, “enough that I’m curious to know what on earth is so urgent that he’d offer you an additional two thousand galleons for it.”

Alphard laughed through his teeth while smoke slipped from his nostrils. He rolled up the note he’d written, and turned to look at her.

“I can’t wait to find out myself.” 

The two stood in a comfortable silence while he smoked, and were only interrupted by the fluttering of a small barn owl’s wings. Alphard handed her the note before affectionately stroking her beak, and she took off.

After a while, he turned to look at Andromeda and broke the silence.

“So- have they decided who they’re forcing you to marry yet?” She grimaced and turned to look at his smiling face. Alphard looked so much like her father, but when he smiled there was something soft and kind about his face that was absent in her father’s.

“As of last week they’re still looking to make me Mrs. Goyle…” Alphard coughed through his laughter, an amused grimace on his face that matched her own.

“And you aren’t interested? That’s shocking.” His voice made it clear that it was the least shocking thing imaginable. Andromeda gripped the book in her hands tightly, and she knew her uncle well enough to know that the gesture wouldn’t go unnoticed. “You know Andromeda, you don’t have to marry any of them.”

She let out a dry low laugh. “Uncle… I don’t have whatever powers of persuasion you used to convince Grandmother and Grandfather you didn’t need to get married. I don’t have a choice. I- I have to bear children, to continue the family line, and our legacy-“

“Andromeda.” She looked up into his tired grey eyes, the amusement was gone. It had been replaced by a quiet look of exhaustion. “I don’t think for a second that you believe any of that. Do you love any of the people in that room?”

“They’re our fa-“

“I’m _well_ aware they’re our family. I’m asking you if you love them.”

Her shoulders sagged. _No_. Just say no, she told herself.

It was a lie. One she’d been telling herself for too long. She supposed that she cared about them in the way you are supposed to care about family. Well, the way normal families do. Not the gross incestuous way she was expected to. She just couldn’t bring the words to her lips.

“You aren’t bound to this, you know. To them.” He played with the cigarette between his fingers as he looked over the grounds, seeing something that wasn’t there. “If you leave, they’ll disown you, but ask yourself: is that really the worst thing that could happen?” She let out a slow sigh in defeat.

“Uncle?”

“Yes?”

“Why didn’t you leave?”

He let out an empty laugh, eyes still cast out across the lawn. “I chose my work. My work requires connections, and that room-” he cast a look of distaste towards the sitting room, “-is filled with connections. It’s not a perfect life, but it is the one I chose. I’d rather live the life I wanted than one that was forced on me.”

Her thoughts immediately went to Ted’s laughing face, and the sound of his voice when he said ‘Dromeda’. The way his hand felt holding hers. The stolen kisses near the Hufflepuff common room. The little hearts he drew on the notes he passed her in the corridor. The way her heart skipped a beat when she’d see him beaming at her across Great Hall. To his credit, Alphard did her the favor of pretending not to notice the forlorn smile on her face.

“It’s just something worth thinking about. This isn’t the rest of your life, love. Not if you don’t want it to be.” He took a long weary drag on what was left of the cigarette, and she smiled at him.

“Those can’t possibly be good for you, Uncle.”

He grinned down at her.

“My dear niece,” she didn’t miss the knowing look he cast at the book in her hands, “You’ve your muggle novels, and I’ve got my cigarettes. Life’s too short to deny ourselves the little things that make us happy.”

Alphard straightened up and put his cigarette out on the head of one of the stone trolls holding up the railing. He grimaced down at it.

“If nothing else, promise me you won’t marry Rabastan- it’s bad enough your sister is going to marry Rodolphus. The last thing we need is more Lestranges running around... I’ve never met a family with worse taste, and I grew up with House Elf heads mounted along the walls.” She laughed, and that brought the smile back to his tired face.

“Thank you.” She gently pressed the side of her head against his shoulder from where they stood.

“Actually Andromeda, I’d meant to ask you when you came into the library- have you seen Si-“

As if on cue, there was a cataclysmic sound of glass shattering on the other side of the mansion. Alphard was moving before Andromeda even had time to process the noise. 

He held the door open to the sitting room for her and she entered the room at the same time that Bellatrix entered on the other side, flanked by the Lestrange brothers.

“Bella, darling,” Druella’s deep voice was the first to interrupt the quiet murmurs in the room, “-what was that sound?” 

“Oh, mother…” Bellatrix reached an elegant hand to pluck a stray shard of glass from her waves of black hair. She let out a deep exaggerated sigh.

“Just Sirius being dramatic, as is often the case- Rabastan, honestly!“ Andromeda took in the fresh blood smudged beneath Rabastan’s nose. Bellatrix pulled out her wand and pointed it at her future brother-in-law’s face, “Scourgify.” His face was clean, and in return he picked another shard of glass out of her hair. 

“We were outside admiring the greenhouse when he decided to cause a fuss. And you know how children are- the minute they get upset things start exploding, catching fire, breaking… ”

Andromeda looked up at Alphard, but his gaze was fixed on his sister. Walburga lacked any ability to keep anger from her face, and she was already starting for the door. Alphard squeezed Andromeda’s shoulder.

“Andromeda… Remember our conversation, and-” He raised one of his sharp eyebrows and nodded towards the book, “do let me know how the story ends.” 

He was by Walburga’s side before she had a chance to start shouting. Placing his arm around his older sister, who glared up at him.

“Wally, darling, as much as I know you’d like to go punish your son, I need your attention over a slightly more urgent matter regarding Grimmauld Place. I’m leaving to take care of business within the half hour, and I would _so_ appreciate a scrap of your attention before I go.”

It was enough of a distraction for Andromeda to slip out the door which led to the stairs. The noise had resumed upstairs, but she could barely hear anything over the pounding in her ears.

Bellatrix was cruel, and in the Lestrange brothers she had found two equally sadistic playmates. She tried her hardest to keep an eye out for both Regulus and Sirius whenever they were all together. The boys were younger and smaller, and so they made perfect targets for the awful lengths her sister would go to to keep herself from getting bored.

During bigger family events, Regulus would often be found at his mother’s side. Sirius on the other hand… she loved him dearly, but the boy wasn’t exactly the best at staying out of trouble.

 She spotted Sirius’s small frame where it stood next to the pond.

Andromeda hiked up the hem of her dress in order to make her way towards her younger cousin. He stood with his back turned to the house, tossing stones into the lake. When she had just about reached him, she caught him glancing over his shoulder. He had stopped mid-throw, and clutched the stone in his left hand tightly. His grey eyes were glassy, but upon recognizing her, he seemed to relax and turned his back to toss the stone into the pond.

“Siri, are you alright?” She arranged the folds of her dress so she could sit next to where he stood. He didn’t reply right away so she gave him a quick look-over. He had a few small scratches decorating his face, from whatever glass had shattered she assumed, along with a split lip, but other than that, no visible injuries.

She pretended not to notice the tear stains down his cheeks, and he pretended to not still be crying.

“Sirius, please.” She gently reached out to touch his wrist.

He let out a low long breath, and eventually sank onto the ground next to her. He tucked his knees up to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them. Andromeda reached out slowly, giving him a chance to pull away, but when he didn’t, she gently tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. That was enough to get him to drop his shoulders.

“No. They didn’t hurt me.” She raised a sharp eyebrow at him and he looked up at her. “I was wandering around outside... because that house is a nightmare. I heard these sounds coming from the greenhouse. They were terrible. And they were getting worse… so I went to see what was happening.”

She gently ran her hand up and down his spine in what she hoped was a soothing way, as she let him keep talking.

“So I opened the door, and then I saw them. Bella, and the Lestranges… They were in there, laughing. The noise was awful. They’d found a.. a cat and-“ he broke off and she put her arm around his small shoulders as they began to shake. Her stomach turned. 

“You don’t have to talk about it.” It was as much a suggestion as it was a request. She didn’t know exactly what they’d been doing, but she had grown up alongside her sister. She herself had come across Bella countless times playing sadistic games with various creatures in the garden of their home. 

“I told them to stop. I couldn’t take it...it was so awful. And then, I think Rabastan grabbed me, and then the next thing I knew. I don’t know…  I think I shattered the greenhouse roof.” He looked away, and she leant her cheek on the top of his head as she continued stroking his back. Well, that explained Rabastan’s bloody nose.

She wished more than anything that this news came as some shock. That this wasn’t what she had come to expect from her sister and cousins. That sometimes it wasn’t animals or magical creatures- but helpless children… All because they were deemed inferior by her family’s standards. 

Her mind kept drifting back to her earlier conversation with Alphard.

She used part of her skirt to help clean Sirius’s face while he grimaced at the gesture. He hated being fussed over, though in his defense their families didn’t exactly provide a nurturing environment. Eventually he relented, and she saw to him as gently as she could.

“Well, seeing as we’re in no rush to go back inside, do you want me to read to you for a bit?” She felt him let out a puff of air, and could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

“Don’t you dare pout Sirius. It’s not because you’re a _child_ .” She picked the book up. “It’s my book. So I’ll be the one to read it.” 

“Fine.” He chuckled a little bit, and then saw the cover of the book she was clutching. “Witch Hunts During the Crusades? That’s what you picked for some light summer reading?”

She grinned at him. “Well, I didn’t exactly want anyone asking why I brought muggle literature into this den of pure-blooded elitism.”

He laughed and gave the book a once over, not hiding how impressed he was with her concealment charm. “A muggle book? What is it?”

“It’s this old novel, Frankenstein- It delves into all these themes about love and human nature and-”

“Andy, where exactly is it that you got a muggle novel?” She looked down to see him knowingly smirking up at her.

She pursed her lips… maybe her sisters weren’t the only ones talking about ‘that Tonks boy’.

“Well if you’re going to be a little jerk-” She made to stand and he let out a bark of a laugh. Grabbing at her arm, he pulled her towards him, and leant against her shoulder.

“No, no! I’m sorry!” He was laughing, and all the previous grief had disappeared from his voice. “Please, read me your muggle book.” She smiled down at him, and flipped it open to where she had marked the page, summarizing what had happened so far.

After she’d read three or four chapters, Walburga’s shouts began to reach them. Andromeda didn’t need to look at Sirius to know he was wound up and ready for another fight. 

“Sirius. One more month, and you’ll be on the train to school.” His fierce grey eyes met her kind brown ones. “You’ll be far away from your mother and father, and you’ll get to talk to people you aren’t related to. Or supposed to marry... Or both.”

That brought the grin back to his face.

“Just hold on love. Things _will_ get better, you’ll see.” She got to her feet, swatting at the blades of grass that had grabbed onto her dress and extended her hand to him. “Just as long as you _behave_ at school…”

He took her hand as he shot her a wicked grin, looking every bit himself again.

“Or what? The Head Girl will write a letter to my mother?” He cleared his throat and put on a ridiculous face as he began to speak in a high, lofty voice. “To Whom it May Concern in the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, it has been brought to my attention that your son was seen speaking to a muggleborn just this morning-” She laughed and pushed him gently.

“Don’t forget that I’m the nice one, Sirius Orion.” The back door to the house slammed open, and Walburga stood with her hands on her hips. Andromeda didn’t have to see her face to know she was furious.

“Sirius Orion Black, you are to come inside this instant!”

Sirius cast one last look up at her. “Thanks Andy, I hope it’s a happy ending! Let me know what happens- or maybe I’ll just ask _Teddy_ once we’re back at school.”

She swatted the back of his head. Her sisters _definitely_ weren’t the only ones talking about ‘that Tonks boy’... He gave her a small salute before turning to stomp off towards his mother, and by the set of his shoulders, he had clearly gotten all the fight back in him.

She stood there a moment longer, listening to soft sounds of the wind-blown pond lapping at the stones that lay scattered around it’s edge. She watched Sirius and Walburga retreat into the house, the closing doors soon drowning the sounds of their shouting.

She looked down to see where she’d placed her finger to hold her place in the story. Ted had underlined a small passage:

_‘When time shall have softened your despair, new and dear objects of care will be born to replace those of whom we have been so cruelly deprived.’_

She touched the yellowed pages affectionately, knowing full well that there likely wasn’t going to be a _happy_ ending. Still, her conversation with Alphard played itself over and over in her head.

_‘I’d rather live the life I wanted than the one that was forced on me.’_

  
It wouldn’t be today, or this month, or even this year- but she knew what was going to come. She was in love with Ted Tonks, and she wasn’t about to marry someone else because it was expected of her. Even though it meant getting disowned. Even though she was terrified. Even though she wasn’t sure there would be a happy ending, it was the life _she_ wanted, and she was willing to take the risk.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are very much appreciated.


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